Chapter 2

An increasingly closer dialogue with the rest of the world

Beyond the borders of the European Union, which is of course the first concern of the DGPT's international activity, the regulatory agency maintains bilateral contacts with its counterparts worldwide, including its main economic partners in the developed world and many developing countries.

In addition, the DGPT carries out its tasks by preparing France's positions in many international organisations in the postal and telecommunications sectors. Most of these have made important structural changes in order to adapt to the rapidly changing environment.

I - Bilateral relations and cooperation: a rich, diverse dialogue

The DGPT has a very diversified network of international relations that is based on and enriched by bilateral meetings which tend to be focused either on regulatory questions or on the promotion of know-how and technologies developed by French players in the telecommunications sector.

1.1. Along with its counterparts in the OECD countries, which have almost all applied the principle of separating the regulatory functions from those of the operators, the DGPT promotes the exchange of viewpoints on the main questions of common interest related to the extension of competition: the development of fair and dynamic competition, particularly through the licensing and interconnection systems, and the guarantee and financing of universal service.

These meetings, which sometimes give rise to ad hoc work groups (for example, on financing R & D, interconnection, and security), made it possible in 1994 to give our partners an outline of:

• developments in French regulations;
• the results of the public consultations;
• the rationale governing the settlement of disputes on interconnection agreements and the conditions for granting the DCS 1800 licence;
• France's expectations with regard to the information society, particularly in view of the February 1995 G7 ministerial conference;
• the objectives of the French presidency of the European Union for this sector.

In addition, preparations for the Plenipotentiary Conference of the ITU and for the UPU (Universal Postal Union) Congress in Seoul gave rise to an exchange of views with our main partners in the European Union (the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal).

• A better mutual understanding of the competitive dynamics and the regulatory framework of the telecommunications sector is also frequently an essential requirement for ensuring the steady flow of business activity. Subsequently, a multilateral agreement that includes balanced concessions should allow comparable, effective access to the markets of non-EU countries.

Following a previously-signed exchange of letters between the DGPT and the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, in July 1994, the DGPT engaged in a similar exchange of letters with the American government providing for a bilateral agreement on data transmission and international value-added services. Thus, French service providers and operators are entitled to fair access to the American market for those services. In addition, the DGPT stressed the urgent need for international cooperation to establish the groundrules for the operation of worldwide satellite-based personal communications systems.

• The first meetings between the DGPT and its Canadian counterparts, the Ministry of Industry and the CRTC, revealed a large convergence of viewpoints. This was particularly helpful in preparing for the G7 ministerial conference on the information society and illustrates the need to strengthen these exchanges through efforts focusing in particular on universal service, data protection, and cooperation policies.
• The French-Japanese bilateral discussions that took place at the end of 1994 centred on preparations for the G7 meeting. There was a convergence of priorities in two major areas: the intervention of regulators in the domain of interconnection to the network of the dominant operator, and the development of mobile telecommunications (PCS licences in Japan).

1.2. Institutional cooperation that brings together economic players

The DGPT also supported active regulatory cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Some of these countries (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic) expressed their desire to strengthen this cooperation in order to train the managerial personnel who are responsible for designing and implementing a legislative and regulatory framework that is compatible with European Union guidelines and that will also foster a competitive policy to serve the objectives of public service.

In 1994, the ACECO working group (Assistance and Advice to the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe), created by the CEPT and chaired by France, organised, jointly with the European Union PHARE programme, three seminars and two workshops for experts from the Eastern European countries, members of the CEPT. These seminars dealt with different matters of European regulation (interconnection between networks, numbering systems, mobile services, frequency management, and the certification and approval of terminal equipment).

There are possibilities for similar bilateral relations particularly with the countries of the Mediterranean basin (Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey).

• Strengthening this form of institutional dialogue is a strategic priority for the DGPT. This policy goes hand in hand with giving increasing support to the promotion of French services in certain high priority geographic areas, in close contact with the French trade offices, the French Board for Foreign Trade (CFCE) and the French Committee for Trade Events Abroad (CFME), and with the professional associations (SIT, SPER), and the relevant manufacturers and operators.

1.3. Asia: a priority area

As part of France's initiative in Asia launched in February 1994 by the Ministry, the DGPT has taken steps to strengthen relations, particularly with China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Korea.

• After the official launch of the French initiative in Asia, the DGPT's first actions along these lines were aimed at China.

After the normalisation of French-Chinese relations, which was formalised by the signing of the 12 January 1994 Joint Communiqué, the Chinese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPT) expressed its intent to renew the bilateral agreements on telecommunications. As these agreements had lapsed due to the new France Télécom statutes, the opportunity was taken to propose to the Chinese MPT a new inter-governmental cooperation agreement in the field of posts and telecommunications which would have a broader scope. The aim of such an agreement would be to propose regulatory-type cooperation to the Chinese, and to accompany and support French companies on the Chinese market.

During Mr. Longuet's visit to Beijing in July 1994 he signed a cooperation agreement with Mr. Wu Jichuan, Chinese Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, which calls for forming a joint committee to bring together the economic players.

This was followed by two missions by the DGPT, on the occasion of a symposium organised by the Agency for Cooperation in Technical and Economic Fields (ACTIM) on new French telecommunications technology, which were aimed at concretely preparing for the first meeting of the Joint Committee. This was held in March 1995 in Beijing and was chaired by Bruno Lasserre and the Chinese vice-minister for posts and telecommunications, Mr. Degiang Zhou.

In addition to the representatives from the DGPT, the French delegation was composed of participants belonging to the France Télécom group, La Poste and Aéropostale, along with representatives from a dozen manufacturers from the telecommunications sector.

As a result of exchanges on regulatory developments in the two countries and round table sessions bringing together the entire sector, this work made it possible to agree on a certain number of co-operative actions to carry out in the coming months.

• A similar approach was taken with Vietnam.

The idea of setting our relations in this sector with Vietnam in the framework of a Cooperation Agreement had already been raised in mid-1993, during the visit to France of Vietnamese Prime Minister Mr. Vo Van Kiet and the Secretary General of the General Office for Posts and Telecommunications, Mr. Dang Van Than. Mr. Longuet raised this idea once again in January 1994 during his visit to South-East Asia.

This agreement, which was drawn up jointly, was signed in October 1994 by the French and Vietnamese ministers in charge of telecommunications.

• A Cooperation Agreement with the Malaysian Ministry of Energy, Posts, and Telecommunications was signed in Paris in October 1993 by Mr. Longuet and his counterpart, Mr. Samy Vellu. This agreement provides for the creation of a Joint Committee, bringing together industrial and government representatives and operators from the two countries.

The first meeting of this Joint Committee was organised jointly by the DGPT and its Malaysian counterparts in Kuala Lumpur at the end of January 1994 at the time of the Minister's trip to South-East Asia.

1.4. Development policy

The activity of the DGPT in the field of development policy is aimed at meeting the expectations of our foreign partners for cooperation. The policies adopted give special attention to the interests of France's economic players — network operators, service providers, and manufacturers.

The DGPT plays an active part in the work of the Development sector of the ITU (this was particularly the case during the first World Conference for the Development of Telecommunications, which was held in March 1994 in Buenos Aires and culminated in a programme called the "Buenos Aires Action Plan"); the DGPT also has ongoing working relations with multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank.

The members of the Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations of the French-speaking Countries (CAPTEF), which is the fruit of the joint action of the Ministry of Cooperation and of the Ministry of Industry, Postal Services and Telecommunications and External Trade, have, with the support of the member countries and France, made sweeping changes in the way the Organisation functions since the XII plenary session in N'Djamena in November 1991.

CAPTEF is now devoted to restructuring the sector so as to increase the independence of operators and foster harmonious regulation of the market.

Between its plenary sessions, the DGPT holds specialized seminars so that others can benefit from its know-how and analysis of major matters of concern: tariff policy, the introduction of competition, frequency band management, and the interconnection of networks. It also holds co-ordination meetings prior to conferences of the ITU and the UPU.

II - A year marked by two important meetings of the ITU and the UPU

III - Reforming the international satellite telecommunications organisations

IV - Multilateral negotiations: the conclusion of the Uruguay Round and prior steps to negotiations on basic telecommunications

Chapter III